Search results

Hi all, I brewed what was to be a session beer, a Creme Ale I got out of the BYO 250 Clone Recipes magazine. And it has a unpleasant bitterness that almost reminds me of a couple batches I made that got infected because of scratches in my bucket. Well I bought a new bucket and ran a...

Ok, so I brewed a 1.072 OG batch late last night. My last 2 batches have been infected, due to a scratched up bucket (I hope). Now I have a new batch of beer and it has been 5 hours shy of 24 hours since I pitched a Wyeast smack pack. Now the smack pack swelled up nice and good (I have...

So last night I brewed a porter that had a SG of 1.072 @ 73 F. When I woke up this morning it was fermenting happily a few bubbles a second. I come home to find my central air dead in the water and the temp of the house at 80 F. I smell the sweet smell of beer, I look under the table and...

Is the Mr. Beer kit a good way to start getting into ciders or do I not need to go that route? I have basic brewing equipment but have never done a cider and would love to try it since the season is coming. If anyone has any good tutorials too that would be great. Thanks! -Chris

So I filled up my bubbler with vodka and pushed on the lid a bit to test the seal and some of the vodka spilled over and dripped into the wort, do I have to worry about anything? Thanks.

Maybe I haven't read enough yet, well I know I haven't because I'm def not ready to go all grain yet. I have one more extract kit I haven't brewed yet and I'm wondering if its possible to get a higher alcohol content from a kit? I love my beers, they taste pretty darn good but I wouldn't mind...

I'm taking a road trip up to Cape Cod tomorrow night and I wanted to see if anyone had any good places to sample home brew or micro brew in the area? Or just anything beer related at all in that area. Thanks! -Chris :mug:

So I was reading "How to brew" by John Palmer and I came across some directions for a APA and he mentions disolving the DME in cold water first then at the end before flame out just dissolving the LME to pasteurize it? I have only dissolved the DME into warm or boiling water at the same time...

I brewed a batch of beer and after I racked it to the secondary I kinda forgot about it, vaca, hot weather, bbq's and car shows got the best of me. It has been in the secondary for a 4-6 weeks. Is it still good or should I just ditch it and start over? Thanks! -Chris

My primary fermenter, a plastic ale pale has some smells. At first it smell faintly of beer. I have only done one batch in it, and that was for 7 or 8 days tops. Then I put 5 gals of water and 5 tablespoons of bleach in it for a few days. Then it smelled of beer and soap. And to top...

So I filed up a Igloo cooler with all my bottles and I mixed 8 gallons of water with 8 tbsp of bleach (1 per gallon) and I lit it sit over night I opened up the cooler today and was taken aback by the fumes, it was almost as strong as my pool chlorinator, that once turned on after sitting a...

I was just curious if that this was possible? The reason I ask is, I was reading up on washing yeast. And I was thinking that your prolly not getting all the yeast you could doing that. But I guess it doesn't matter cuz the yeast multiply right? And if they have a good environment than...

Ok, so I am like halfway thru my first brew ever. Seems to be going as planned. (I need a bigger kitchen and sink!) So I sanitized my secondary with Star San, and got lots O' Foam and could not get it out for the life of me, so I racked it anyway. Pushed most of the foam out but is it OK...

1. Will Star San kill yeast? Cuz I stirred my yeast with a spoon that was soaking in it. 2. more of a note to self to pour the wort into the fementer outside, I used a flat mesh screen (may have been my problem, prolly shoulda used a cone shaped strainer) to strain the wort. 3. Wort...

When taking a gravity reading in a bucket can you just take the top off and plop the meter down in it? Or what is the best way to extract enough for a sample? I found when playing with my hydrometer it kept sticking to the sides of the tube it came with. Maybe I should get a proper lab...

It's a stainless steel pot. I don't have anything to sanitize it other than bleach which I know you cannot use. I will be using bleach on my plastic stuff though. Will the boil work for sanitizing it? Or should I get something to sanitize it? I have never used it or any of my new...

So I'm doing my homework and getting the list together. Gonna buy me a kit and get brewing by Thanksgiving hopefully. Hoping to meet or talk to people in the area, only brew shop I know about is Princeton Brew shop in Trenton. Any other locals give a shout! Otherwise, heya! Names Chris...